‘Trailing a Black Bear in Spring’

Kim Cabrera, a local tracker, filmed this informative video recently. She wrote,

Black Bear Trailing:
In this video, I trail a black bear in spring grasses. The bear is using a field as a food source. Yummy, fresh spring grass! Along the way, I follow it down and embankment, and into the forest. I also show you a bear bed that has been used near the field where the bear is feeding! I placed a trail camera on the bear bed and it came back to use it several nights later!

Oh man, that is so cool!
They are just starting to wander! Wait until they reach their most active time later in the season, and listen for the din and hue of unaware homesteaders who can’t believe that the bear and her cubs may be helping themselves to their [insert: chickens, fruit/fruit trees, garbage, or beehives- here] and then you can hear the cries for death to these fine mammals, as a first reaction! But rare is the bear -ist that actually bothers to hunt any of them during actual bear season, no that would be too logical. Soon cries of “bear sausage” will ring thru the hills. That is a true story, which unbelievably repeats itself yearly .

Another superior outdoor harvest. If you want to hunt deer and bears on your homestead or just watch them, plant an orchard of aromatic apples that drop their ripe fruit from August through November. Right outside your door for archery and handguns, a hundred yards out for rifles. No dogs, of course. Gravenstein kicks off archery and aromatic Macintosh works for rifle season. Mac offspring Spartan apple will pull deer and bears in from a long way. Do your homework. You can harvest the fruit-finished meat or simply “Zen” out as the bear(s) dismantle your trees. Cool, I guess. I watched a big mama bear send her two cubs, each out on their own branches, harvesting my elephant heart plums. So cute, I let ’em go. Kind of a venison guy, anyway, but I hear bear is pretty good if they haven’t been eating a rotten carcass all week.

The fishery collapse has been a bummer for carnivores and omnivores, but feeding on fresh spring grass by bears has probably always happened. While technically classed as carnivores, bear diets are quite omnivorous and opportunistic.

Another terrific creature feature! Way to go Kim. And Kym. Hey Kym, Can I camp too at Camp Kimtu? Another superior outdoor harvest.